Key-lock mechanism



El A WASQ 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 .3 m M A w m Jan, 2, 1923.

A E. GREFF. KEY LOCK MECHANISM. FILED JUNE 23. 1920.

Jan, 2, i

ANDRE EUGENE GREEK, O1? PARIS, FRANCE, .ASSIE'rNOR TO JEAN ARMANDHAURAT,

01E PARIS, FRAIJCE.

KEY-LOGK Mechanism.

Application filed June 23, 1920. erial No. 891,066.

(GRANTED "UNDER PROVISIONS OF THE A81 MARCH 3, 1921, 41 STAT. L, 1313.)

To all ir itant-natty com wt: adapted to revolve freely, but withoutplay, Be it known that l, linear: EUGENE a cylinder 3 pierceddiametrally with a rec- (lnurr, citizen of the Republic of France,rctangular aperture 4. of similar cross section sidin sr at 33 Rue desPyrenees, Paris, in the to the aperture 2, opposite which latter it isRepublic of France. have invented new and intended to be placed. usefulImprovements in 'ey-Lock Mocha In this aperture 4, there are locatedparnisms (for which I have filed application allelly and at right anglesto the axis of in France Jun. 97. .1919, Patent No. 505,?l'l), cylinder3, a plurality of tumblers 5 of small of which the following: isspecification. thickness but or the same width as the aper- Thisinvention has for its object to proture at in which they are capable ofmoving ride an improved combin on key locking and which serves as aslide-way for them all. mechanipln applicable to all key locking llachoil -these tumblers is under the action toning such as all kinds ol locii, padlm of a spring; 6 lodged in a cavity or" the cylbolts, etc.(hereinz lta-zr incliiuled in the term inder 3,

illll one end of which is engaged lei-k). The improved keylickinginechain a lateral notch of the tumbler, as is nisin has thefollowing advantages clearly shown in the drawing.

Each key is *lfe to open only the lock for ach tumbler 5 is adapted toturn treely which it has been made; the locks may be inside the barrel1, with one end rubbing grouped in series, a master-key being: ableagainst Wall of the latter;

to open some or all of the locks of any one sponding spring 6 has thefunction of enseries, and. one or more master-keys being gag ng one endof the said tumbler 5 in one able to open a plurality of series oflocks; of the aperture 2 of the barrel in uch a no key can be soalteredas to render it capaanner as to oppose the rotation ot the cylbio ofopening any other look, any alteration mdel 3- nnitle in {1. keyromleg-ing ugelggg; no mag EflCll tLHDlJlGJ is pierced Wltl). (lTGOULIIgH- {elf-key can b ng d as t render 11;. lar aperture 7 oflZlGlQt-lll'llllGCl height which pable of opening any other locks thanthose n'luy be different tor each tumbler or only for which it has beenmad i; any alteration 'lor some of the tinnblors. The width is the madein a 1Tl2l3t81-l(6 y' hwinn' the result of $211116 01 all theseapertures because it rendering it useless for a pc or the locks Servesfor the passage of a common key 8 for which it has been made, or even fr nwhich is of rectangular-cross section but is dering it completelyuseless. not uniform in height, as shown in Fig. l.

in the accompanying {llftl.Vl11fSI At its inner end the cylinder 5 hasat- Fig, 1 is a axial s cti n of a. l ck with tached to it an end plate9; and at its outer its key constructed in accordance with this end ithas cast integral with it an end plate i ve tion, 10. These two endplates embrace the bar- Fig. 2 is cross section of the preceding ml 1and prevent the cylinder 3 from shiftligure the tumblers being seen inprojection. ing longitudinally along the said barrel.

Fig. 3 is diagram necessary for explain- At one end, namely in the endplate. 10 the ing e principle upon which the invention cylinder 3 ispierced with an entrance 11 is based. which serves to admit the key.

lis a numerical tab e oi a group of By the locking operation eachtumbler 5 combinations which canbe obtained; and is caused by the actionof its respective 5 and 6 show a modified 'lorin ol? spring 6 to engagewith one or the other end construction of the look. into one of theapertures 2 of the barrel,

The typical construction shown in Figs. whereby the cylinder 3 is lockedon the l and 2 ii ill enable the nature of the inyenlatter. Butwhen thekey S is inserted in the Mon to be clearly unnerstood. lock, it passesin succession through all the ne ili'o rowed key locking mechanismapertures '7 of the various tumblers, the comprises a filled barrel 1pierced with two shape of this key being such that all those rectangularapertures situated diametrally tumblers 5 will more back completely intoopposite each other. within which there i" the cylinder 3 which can thenbe caused position by the key to turn in the barrel 1. The end plate 9which turns with the cylinder 3, is

provided with a central nib 12, or any other suitable device connectedto the bolt in order to cause the latter to move and open the door- Asshown in Fig. 1, thetumblers 5 are considerably less in height than thediame ter of the cylinder 3, so that if the biting or cam portions ofthe key should be higher than necessary to draw the tumbler ends withincylinder-3, it can nevertheless unblock the lock mechanism since theopposite ends of the tumblers will not be projected into the slot 2 ofbarrel 1; but it is quite unable to do this if its height is too small.This peculiarity is one of the essential and important characteristicfeatures of the invention,because it is always easily possible to reducethe height of the key by means of a file or other means, whereas it isnot an easy matter to increase its height and this renders the pickingof the look much more difficult if not impossible.

Since the tumblers 5 are generally all different from one another, orsome only of them are different, it will be readily understood that thekey must comprise a certain number of notches situated at greater orsmaller distance from theanis, in order to causethe respective tumblerto move tl'irough the requisite amount for disengaging it from theaperture 2 of the barrel in which it is engaged when at rest.

In order to still further increase the safety of the improved lockingmechanism, there may be placed between the tumblers I or otherwisearranged, tumblers 13 similar to those tumblers, but of a determinedheight such that if the key is too large, one end of the tumblers willengage in one of the apertures 2 and block the cylinder 3. Thesetumblers are identically similar in all the locking. mechanisms, of oneand the same series.

In the key which has been chosen as an example and illustrated in Fig.3, there are four notches situated on lines 1, 2, 8, 4 parallel to theaxis of the key and spaced a de termined distance apart. By varying theof the notches on these lines, a certain number of combinations will beproduced each of which maybe indicated by a number that is formed bywriting down in their order the numerals designating the depth of thenotches. Thus the key illustrated in Fig. 3 may be indicated by thelocking number 3124.

in the chosen example; it is possible to have a number of differentcombinations equal to 4*:256. By writing down all these combinations ina diminishing series to produce the table shown in 4, it will beperceived that, owing to the reason substantially set forth hereinabove,all the locking numbers that are horizontally underlined cannot open oneanother, and that all those struck through obliquely are opened by atleast one of them. Consequently only the underlined locking mechanismswill be manufactured since they are independent of one another. I

The combinations that are neither struck through nor underlined arecap-able of opening all or part of the underlined locking mechanisms.Therefore it is amongst these that the master-key will be chosen.

F or instancez' 4414 opens 4411-4312 42134114 (1) and 3414 3424 opens3421- 332232233124 (2) and 3414 and 2424. 2434 opens 2431-2332-2233-2134and .2424 and 1434. 1444 opens 1441-1342 1248-1144 (4) and 1434. I

That is to say, there are four master-keys, each opening one of theseries (1) (2) (3) (4); 3424 having a common locking 3414 with 4414, andone 2424 with 2484 which has likewise one 1434 in common with 1444Further, 4424 opens the lockings opened by and 3424 and has a locking4121 peculiar to itself. 3434 opens the lockings opened by 3424 and 2434and has a locking 3131 peculiar to itself. 2444 opens the lockingsopened by 2434 and 1444 and has a looking 2141 peculiar to itself. 4434opens-the lockings opened by 4424 and 3434. .3444 opens the lockingsopened by 3434 and 2444. 4444 opens all the lockings. l

if an attempt should be made to File or reduce a key with a fraudulentintent, the said key would become altered in such a manner as tocorrespond to a lock that has not been made, and consequently the saidkey would become useless. For instance: 2431 altered to 1431 or 2331 or1331, etc., is incapable of opening any existing lock.

Similarly a master-key if altered in the same way, will be capable ofopening fewer and. fewer locks until a point is reached where it becomesaltogether useless. EX- ample 3424 altered to 3423 will open neither3124 nor 2424.

This grouping principle is of course app'licable irrespectively of thenumber of the notches in the key and the variety of these notches.

It is obvious that modifications may be made in the apparatus describedwith reference to Figs. 1 and 2.

In the construction illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 the key 8 comprises twoparallel se ries 14 and 15 of nicks acting upon necks of two rows oftumblers 5 lodged and guided in the cylinder 3 and acted upon by springs6. The key 8 has the function of bringing the ends of these tumblersflush with the side of the cylinder 3 in order to allow the latter toturn inside the barrel 1- as in the preceding cases.

The juxtaposition of two rows of notches in the key increasesconsiderably the number of combinations, and renders fraudulent openingstill more diflicult.

Having now described my invention, what ll claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

l. A key locking mechanism comprising a fixed barrel, a rotary cylinderin said barrel, operatively connected to the mechanism of the look, akey provided with steps and adapted to engage into the rotary cylinderand rotate therewith and spring controlled locking members adapted toslide radially in the rotary member and having an inner edge adapted tocooperate with a step on the key, said locking members being adapted vtoengage with the fixed barrel and having a length smaller than thediameter of the rotary cylinder.

2. A key locking mechanism comprising a fixed barrel, a rotary cyinderin said barrel, operatively connected to the mechanism of the lock a keyprovided with two Series of juxtaposed steps and adapted to engage intothe rotary cylinder and rotate therewith, spring controlled, lockingmembers adapted to slide radially in the rotary memher and having aninner edge adapted to cooperate with a step on the key, said lookingmembers being adapted to engage with the fixed barrel and havinga lengthsmaller than the diameter of the rotary cylinder (Fig. 6).

3. A key locking mechanism comprising a fixed barrel, a rotary cylinderin said barrel, operatively connected to the mechanism of the lock, akey provided with steps and adapted to engage into the rotary cylinderand rotate therewith, spring controlled looking members adapted to slideradially in the rotary member and having an inner edge adapted tocooperate with a step on the key, said locking members being adapted toengage with the fixed barrel and having a length smaller than thediameter of the rotary cylinder and additional locking members identicalin all of the locks of one and the same series slidably mounted in therotary cylinder and adapted to engage with steps on the key for thepurpose of locking the rotary cylinder to the fixed barrel if thecorresponding steps of the key are too high.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

ANDRE EUGENE GEEEE.

